Adventure Chronicle
This article dictates the events that take place in the party's adventures. Using links to pages is a good way to add to the game. Also, paragraphing and spelling are paramount. Tell the story in a third person fashion, and attempt to remove sarcasm from the retelling. Current Party Members *Ihnoc Lospad *Njáll Völund *Gomaz Kadabra (a.k.a. Elena) *Polly Carter *Vera Carter *Dimo *Anna *Yuna *Isabelle Previous Party Members *Eiji Matsuno *Roland Magicbane (and his hawk, Perry) *Taiban Sanithos (currently involved in some kind of pirating) *Kiki Fukiko Episode 1: Phantom Meat Our tale began in the Inn in the town of Inne - Firstep Inn. Rowdy though it may have been, a small girl lay asleep at an empty table. She had recently been taken here and left under the care of the innkeeper. As she lay asleep at the table, a man in rare armour entered the bar, sat at the last remaining empty table, and ordered a drink. The metal plates of his armour have no obvious tempering marks, they were obviously formed that way and the colour appears to be inherant to the metal rather than painted. Also, there are no noticeable signs of rust but it is obviously not as shiny as it should be. Soon after his arrival, a rather grime ridden, bearded gnome entered, already drinking, and smoking, and sat himself next to the man, also ordering a drink. Whether drawn to this man's silence, or just deciding, of the few seats left, that one next to an armoured man was less compromising than a sleeping girl, is undecided. Breaking this silence, in walked a man obviously kitted for war, with a large halberd across his back. Sitting at the table, as all other seats but those near the girl were now full, he began to try to make conversation with the pair, mostly the man, as the gnome seemed more than occupied smoking and drinking at the same time. The man made no reply, but when coaxed into ordering food, he ordered the local delicacy - Chilly and Raw Fish Stew. Trying to be polite, the man with the Halberd, who introduced himself as Roland, also ordered the stew. Before the stew arrived, the sleeping girl woke up, obviously disorientated with her surroundings, and after trying to orient herself, asked the nearest group of patrons, who happened to be the 3 men, where she was. They told her, and found out that her family lived in Xerxes, and decided, after Roland politely tried to eat the revolting tasting and smelling soup, that as they were all going in that direction, they might as well help this young girl out. A confused but mostly just very dull serving maid decided that this was totally fine, and let them and the girl leave together the next day. Episode 2: Attack of the Colon Shortly after leaving for Xerxes, Roland fell flat on his face. After quick examination, the Gnome deduced it was due to the soup, as he was the only one to eat it, and he was sure that it was supposed to smell sweet, due to the use of herbs. As he was on a tight schedule, he decided he could not stop to help, and left for Xerxes without the others, but not before referring them to a friend he knew - an alcoholic female halfling who dabbled in magic. After dragging Roland back to Inne, the party found the halfling, and gave her a large bottle from the gnome, which contained a very good strain of alcohol, to which the halfling accepted to keep Roland's condition from worsening. The small girl, who introduced herself as Elena, seemed to have some knowledge of poisons, and general alchemical processes, and, at her words, the party decided to collect come seaweed to help test the last of the soup, which the gnome left in a flask for them. Upon running these tests, they find out it was rabbit worm poison, often used in this dish. After returning to Inne, dragging Roland as a sled for the girl and halfling, they go back to the Inn to find the poisoner. After a few moments, the armoured man, Ihnoc, was walking the inn with his gun drawn, looking for likely enemies, Cora, the halfling, was sat drinking, Elena somehow managed to end up cooking, and Roland was still face down in the dirt in front of the inn. Episode 3: Revenge of the Sick The next morning, Roland woke up outside the Inn. Obviously astounded by the detective skills of the party, as they were all still doing what they were last night, he walked straight up to the cook with crossbow loaded and asked who made the soup the previous night. He responded that it was a temporary worker, as the inn was so busy, and that he was a dwarf with ginger hair and an eye-patch, probably from the nearby settlement Ging-Erdorf. Whilst this was happening, a drunk elf, feminine but male, tried to get Ihnoc's attention, with little avail. Cora shouted at the elf that Ihnoc was a 'friggin mute' and would have continued with her drink, had the elf not thrown a glass which skimmed her head. At this, Cora began to cast various magic spells, and with the help of Ihnoc, managed to knock the elf out. At the same moment, the chef ran in, and dragged the elf off, crying "Elf Stew!" at which Cora's rage hit a high point, and she began torching the inn. The party left the inn soon after. Travel to Ging-Erdorf was short and uneventful, and when the party arrived at the town, no-one was around. Knocking on the first house, Roland tried to communicate with the inhabitant, but had height difficulties, so Cora took over, finding out that there was a hideout for a group of eye-patch wearing ginger dwarves in town. Upon entering the hideout, a dwarf from a trap door succeeded in dodging Ihnocs's attempt to clothesline him, and tried to run away, only to be thwarted by Ihnoc. 5 other dwarves tried similar tactics, but in the end the party won out. Then the Dwarves dropped their poly-morph spells, turning back into their original form - Orcs. After again trying to beat the party, the orcs were finally slain, and Roland announced that they were after him, as they were magic users. Before the party finished things up in Ging-Erdorf, and moved on, Cora noticed she had finished the drink left by the Gnome, and now had no incentive to carry on to Xerxes. Saying a hasty goodbye, she returned to Inne. Episode 4: A New Plotline The next stop for the party was in the port town of Saal. Recently arrived from a rather roundabout ship journey from Darrena, a short human by the name of Taiban, drawn by the chance of potential wealth and bodyguards, joined up with the party. As the hour was late, the party crashed in the nearest Inn, but Ihnoc once again piqued the interest of a less than sober man, who he ended up in a brawl with (and most of the rest of the bar too.) Also of note in the Inn, was a conversation with a waitress, from which the party found out they were headed the wrong way, if they were trying to get to Xerxes. After various face-palms all around, and being kicked from the Inn for bad behaviour, the party tried the other Inns closer to the sea. Upon entering Fabulous Inn, Roland, with Ihnocs help, tried to buy a room by cross-dressing, which was obviously this Inns theme. Failing this, and also failing to steal the dress, Ihnoc and the party gave up and started back to Inne. The next morning, from their camp by the main road, flames could be seen rising high from Saal. On seeing this, and the obvious repercussions of commoners in danger, Roland immediately set off at a run back to Saal. The party also followed, as most were also for saving commoners, and the rest understood the various loot involved. Episode 5: Paladin Strikes Back Upon returning to Saal, the party instantly set about trying to put out various fires, starting with the first Inn they had been thrown out of. Roland and Ihnoc started a bucket line of commoners, whilst Taiban climbed into the inn and ransacked a sword and a tapestry and an old man from one of the rooms. Upon dumping the old man outside, with the express instructions of staying there if he wanted his loot back, Taiban set off to help the rest of the party at the third Inn, as the second had burned to the ground. At the same time, Roland and Elena had found themselves running from a guy balanced on a stone golem, which was rolling towards them. After escaping being crushed by the same old man that Taiban had saved (who teleported in and out after stopping the golem and seemingly disabling him, relinquishing his loot to Taiban in Taibans eyes.), Roland and Ihnoc tried to talk with the man on the golem, who had blue hair, and a dragon tattoo. These attempts failed, and left Ihnoc with a weird scar-like tattoo-bruise in the shape of a dragon, and Roland with the same, and a trip out to sea with a huge punch, leaving him out cold about half a mile out to sea. The rest of the party Hurried to the third inn, but not before Ihnoc almost got his gun stolen by a halfling, who turned herself into a cat to escape. This Inn had the Inkeeper standing outside, with his wife. She mentioned her herbal alchemical components in the cellar, which Elena ran to the back of the Inn to find. Taiban, who was told he could keep a 3rd of the cash, was sent to retrieve the Inns safe-box, and after sucessfuly finding the back of the inn, he joined Elena in a search for loot. Using a bed as a makeshift slide, Taiban managed to grab the safe and take it with him down a small tunnel, about the same time as Elena collected the main part of the chemical collection, and also found her way into the same tunnel, as the rest of the inn fell down around them, sealing their way back. After trying to find the remains of his party (minus Roland who he knew was safe) Ihnoc followed the tunnel to the main sewer grate, and helped Taiban cover themselves in literal crap trying to manouver the safe out. Once all were on dry land, Taiban handed over 2/3 of the savings in the safe, and Elena was allowed to keep half of the 'alchemicals'. Episode 6: Return of the "Strange rewards we seem to get" All debts appearing to be settled, Elena realised the Ihnoc hadn't received a reward for helping save Roger (the Innkeeper) and Daisy's (his wife) Inn. They then asked whether he would like to marry their daughter, and upon accepting, the party (minus Roland Magicbane, who was still out cold at sea) tripped off the the registry office to sign a deed for a marriage as and when Ihnoc chose. Upon asking to meet his possible future bride, the party all trekked back to Roland and Daisy's house, and they called down their daughter, Vera. In the ominous silence that followed, Daisy said they had another daughter, if Vera was not preferable, and upon asking to meet her, and the rest of the family, Polly and her younger brother James came in. After Ihnoc noticed James' hostile nature towards him, he gave James his gun to play with, and James took it out back and, against all odds, did not kill himself or anyone important with it. After some sly business with Taiban, Ihnoc convinced Taiban to try and win Polly's hand in marriage through a game of cards, as Roland enjoyed betting games. Ihnoc promised Taiban 500gp for her, and, upon inspection of Polly's love of pirates, which he found inedequate, agreed. Soon after, once the girls had grabbed their stuff, and Ihnoc had retrieved his gun, he slung the girls over his shoulder and the party took off out the door, with a quick goodbye from some of the characters to the befuddled parents. Episode 7: The Lord of the Ships Meeting back up with Roland Magicbane, who finally came to on the beach of Saal, The party decided to try and buy passage to Xerxes, but after checking the travel in an out, which Elena explained was minimal, they decided to try and hire their own tub. Down at the docks, they found a broken keel-boat that looked in need of some repairs, and convinced the dock-master to take it out of the harbour for 50gp. They found there were 2 possible candidates for boat-fixing extraordinare, one of which was pricey and good, the other crazy and possibly free. They met the crazy and free guy on the way to his workshop, and he tried to steal the boat from Taiban, to which he took great offence, seeing its potential for converting it into an airship with the proper funding. Once their differences had been dispelled, the party agreed to let this man work on their boat, and he began straight away. Upon searching for food, Roland found the last remaining inn that had not been burnt down, and purchased a meal, wary of the pyromaniacs sitting in the opposite corner. As he left, the many guards of this inn let loose their crossbows on these pyromaniacs, obviously at some secret command given by the innkeeper. Once back at the party, who had almost fed each-other through Vera's cooking and Elena, and to no extent Ihnocs fishing, Roland related the happenings at the inn, and the party decided it would be a good place to stock up on supplies for their seaward journey. Supplies in tow, and ship fixed, the party left Saal the next day, with Taiban and the Ship builder agreeing to disagree where flight was concerned. Episode 8: The Fellowring of the Ship With some skill at navigating, and a form of map, Taiban was given duty to navimagate "this here vessel" towards the correct latitude, or something to that degree. 3 days, 1 tuna and a lack of other edibles later, the party finally made it back to land along the coast, only getting lost for a few days. The nearest town they 'docked' at was Little Winkleton - Nicknamed by the locals as Tiddly-Winkleton. Talking to the Town mayor left Roland Magicbane with a date with his less than unattractive wife. A few hours later, after Elena had covered the Mayor's daughter in red dye, Roland was taken to his date by seeming bodyguard girlfriends of the mayor's wife, who's nickname was Princess. Princess got Roland to change into rather revealing clothing, and was probably about to get him into a world of trouble, when the mayor burst in and challenged him to a duel which would decide which one was Princess' husband, and the town mayor. This contest, also most likely designed by Princess, was similar in design to tiddlywinks, and, upon beating the mayor, and his retinue of guards, the previous mayor ran crying from the scene, and Roland was left as mayor and play-thing of Princess. Realising his fate only too late, Roland was dragged to Princess' throne. Out-muscled by her female guards, he could only look on in horror as he watched the previous mayor jump from a nearby peir, with a rope tied to a rock around his legs. Not realising their friends fate, the rest of the party spent a quiet night on their ship, with Elena fishing in the moonlight. As night crept slowly by, Roland managed to break from his bonds, and got out of the palace, to go and retrieve his halberd from the pier it had been thrown off of, not soon after the mayor threw himself off. Finding his gear, but no mayor, Roland walked back to the palace in a rage. About this time, Ihnoc had decided to check on the whereabouts of Roland, only to find him ready to storm the palace, and to hear an alarm be raised and hear the sound of people inside arming themselves. Back at the boat, Taiban and Elena had no knowledge of the current events, but could guess some of what happened when she managed to fish the previous mayor from the sea. Episode 9: Roland's Rage at Full Moon (literally) Just at that moment, Perry appeared with a note for Roland who, after reading it, told Ihnoc he would catch up with the group later, stole a donkey, and rode out of Little Winkleton as fast as the little donkey's legs would carry it. After failing to revive the mayor, (who had been dead, under the sea for about an hour or two) Taiban and Elena both caught up with Ihnoc and planned what to do. As it was unlikely that supplies were going to be delivered to them, they decided they should try to leave without much further ado. However, as Roland had shown a liking to the mayor, the party decided to try to find a way to revive him. As non of them had any skills in this area, they decided trying to slow his decomposition was their best bet. This is how they found themselves taking salt from the nearby old people's home to create a salt room to store the mayor in, only after waking up the old war veterans who lived there. This was ultimately to their advantage, as the war veterans came to their rescue, or at least to Princess' annoyance, as they helped combat her army of warrior women, who were sent to waylay the party. Running from aforementioned warrior women, the party made it back to their ship, just in time for Taiban to cast off, as the women had made it to (what was left of) the pier. One jumped on the front of the boat, but Ihnoc was ready. Well, he was "sort of" ready, as when she came to attack him, he tried to grapple with her and throw her off the boat, which ended in him being thrown over the side, trying desperately to swim for the safety of the boat. Next in this women's line of fire was Elena, who narrowly dodged a javelin thrown at her, and then, through her magic, managed to throw the nearby fishing net over the women, entangling her, but not fully stopping her. Running to the only person not aware of the fight, Elena filled Taiban in with what was happening, so he left her to steer whilst he dealt with their intruder. Getting his 'point' across with the sharp end of his rapier, the warrior finally accepted defeat, and so the party tied her up and slung her below-deck. Ihnoc safely back on board, the party could turn their concerns back to the lack of supplies they had left. With the total number of (living) people aboard now totalling 6, and Roland who would probably have to eat something of their stores when he got back, they really needed to find a safe place to dock and collect some serious supplies. Episode 10: A Young Girl and her Chemicals After sailing for several hours, the party arrived at Porto de Costa. Taking in the somewhat Latin spirit, the party decided to buy sombreros. However, as Taiban browsed various other wares, a siesta took place and the city became significantly quieter. During this time, a couple, obviously alien to the city, approached the party for information. Taiban persuaded them to take interest in a tour that he was selling, asking them to return in a few hours. At the end of the siesta, the party found a merchant who decided to do some deals on travel supplies, though he was also persuaded to provide the tour for the foreign couple instead. At this moment, the dictator Augusto Banzer, along with some of his private army, approached the party. During a heated exchange, Ihnoc, who had remained hidden, fired his blaster rifle in an attempt to ward Banzer away. Elena and Taiban quickly capitalized on the situation by claiming Ihnoc's gun was an alchemical enhanced variant and that, for a price, they could manufacture more. Banzer agreed to allow Ihnoc to stay and load supplies onto the party's ship while Taiban and Elena were escorted to Banzer's fort. Taiban and Elena were locked in a basement and forced to make the weapons for Banzer. Within this room, a man, who seemed more intent on cleaning guns than taking notice, sat in the corner. Taiban and Elena both schemed to construct a potion that would disable the consumer, selling it as the magical ingredient needed to re-create Ihnoc's weapon. When their potion was ready, Taiban sent word to Banzer that it was ready and Banzer readied his men for a demonstration in the parade yard. Before leaving, Elena acquired several alchemical ingredients and tools and Taiban found a box of unknown technology, deciding to give it to Ihnoc for analysis. Sensing deception, Banzer only allowed some of his guards to ingest the potion, though after several seconds, it was enough for the pair to escape. Episode 11: Aquasition As Taiban and Elena ran from Banzer's fortress, they noticed that they were not being chased by Banzer's army, but rather the man in the basement, armed with two blunderbuss rifles. It was at this moment when Roland, riding his donkey, returned to the scene to help fight of the crazed gunman and escape the city. After several hours at sea, the ship was beset from below by a submarine. The commander of the ship decided to take the party prisoner, though Taiban reacted angrily and killed the man where he stood. Next, Ihnoc helped Taiban to release the anchor rope and Taiban proceeded into the ship, Ihnoc holding the anchor. Knocking out several crew members, he tied the rope around them and attempted to stop the submarine's escape by dealing with the ship's engines, but to no avail. After searching to valuables, Taiban arrived at the bridge and dispatched two of the crew members on the bridge, leaving the recoiling third. After attaching the rope to the crew members, Taiban ushered to Ihnoc to drop the anchor overboard. The resulting force caused the crew members to be pulled up the submarine's ventral hatch and into the sea. The third crew member, Anna, was persuaded by Taiban to join their crew due to her competency with the vessel, to which she agreed. Episode 12: Return to Xerxes Now in control of the submarine Taiban, with the help of Anna, navigated the party towards Xerxes. He was lost for around a day, but then found the ruined bridge connecting Xerxes to the mainland of the Great Plains, and stationed the vehicle along a collapsed section that acted as a ramp up to the body of the bridge. Leaving Polly, Vera, Anna, the captured soldier of the Princess and the dead corpse of the mayor in the sub, the party walked along the empty bridge without incident for some time until a very light golf-ball like sphere hit Ihnoc in the helmet, rebounding off it and breaking the silence. It was shortly followed by more, none of which hit the party. The source of the balls turned out to be the Gnome from Inne, who, when asked how exactly he got here before the party just tapped his nose twice. Dumbfounded by this, the party moved on without further comment before they came to a 30 metre gap in the bridge, with the sea wall surrounding Xerxes on the other side. Taiban and Ihnoc, both ever prepared, readied a grappling hook and piton dart respectively. Elena was curious as to how the Gnome had managed to get on to the bridge, as there was no obvious craft in sight. She hoped that she might be able to replicate his method to get to Xerxes and started walking back in his direction. Roland, on the other hand was totally unprepared for the problem in front of him. His only advantage was that his recent travels had dulled his sense of fear to the point of non-existence. Capitalising on this, as soon as Ihnoc had secured his piton, Roland tripped him and grabbed on to his waist with the intention of pushing them over the edge together, from where on he would climb up Ihnoc's line. Taiban quickly interjected sense into the matter by pointing out that between them the party had more than enough rope to make a boson's chair, which would get all of them across without problem. Ihnoc nearly ruined it by trying to grab on as Roland was about to cross, but came to his senses before causing a problem. As they passed through the crumbling sea wall the party were greeted with the staggering sight of Xerxes in all it's glory. Episode 13: Xerxes Hospitality As the party step into Xerxes, they are attacked by the native crag cats. In the fight, Roland is knocked off of the edge of the plateau but manages to grab the landing lines of a nearby airship, dislocating his arms. Elena jumps for the same airship and convinces the piloting family to collect Ihnoc and Taiban and land to help Roland, which due to her Xerxes heritage, they agree to. Elena then convinces the party that they need to move from the Merchant's Quarters, where they landed, to the upper levels. However as they make their way to the central staircase, the guards recognise them and manage to capture Roland. Roland is put on trial and the other three manage to sneak in to watch. Princess, from Little Winkleton, arrives and pays the bail on Roland. She then binds him and takes him with her. As the bail money is removed from the court, Taiban seizes the opportunity and steals the money from the treasurer, guards in tow. Elena and Ihnoc wait at the staircases to the upper level as Ihnoc is approached by Ubangu, an Azuman. He talks to Ihnoc privately about an Imperial warlord by the name of Kahn Rutherford. Ihnoc agrees to lend what help he can. Taiban eventually evades capture and disappears with the money but Elena is captured. Roland sends his hawk, Perry, to follow her. After Perry leads them to a small prison, Ihnoc stands guard as Roland breaks Elena from her cell. He also notices two tourists, Njáll Völund and Eiji Matsuno and helps them as well. They escape without notice. Elena soon notices a public execution by water sphere of one of the Grand Masters. She requests the party help save him. In the subsequent chaos, Eiji makes some impressive leaps to reach the execution pyre and with Njal's help, disrupts the magicians focus and the Grand Master falls from the sphere. Roland bundles him up and runs while Eiji hides and Njal is followed by a mass of guards and angry citizens. On the lower levels, Roland heals the Grand Master and Ihnoc looks for Ubangu. Elena awakes in an orphanage and is haunted by a spirit uttering the words "We will take her back!" but eventually escapes. Eiji climbs the outer surfaces of Xerxes and steals an airship with little notice. Elena, Ihnoc, Roland and the Grand Master also take an airship and attempt to meet up with Eiji, with Njal holding onto the landing lines for his life. The group meets up in the air and the group receives some rewards; Eiji gets a camera, Ihnoc gets a seduction potion and Roland gets an invisibility cloak and pants. The group takes the best airship and allows the Grand Master to leave. Episode 14: Building The Anorak On their way back to the sub, the party notice a large junk under attack by pirates. Roland and Njal board a pirate boat and stop them while the others provide air support. The junk's captain tells them to meet him in Porto de Costa for a reward. The party decide to return to Xerxes to have their airship modified to fit their submarine and thus become submersible. The party manage to find a customization shop, owned by Mr X, who says the modifications can be completed in three days. Ihnoc attempts to socialize with Mr. X's receptionist but ends up in a brawl with her boyfriend, Warry Bhite. Roland, Elena and Eiji hide as guards storm the shop. Njáll makes a run for it. Njáll makes a run through various houses and with the help of one resident, manages to leap to the shop's hanger. Later, during an attack at the shop by what appeared to be Azuman soldiers, a strange pustuel is left on Ihnoc. It later attracts several crag cats that drag him off to their cave. With the airship modifications nearly complete, Roland has Perry track Ihnoc and Eiji and Elena join him in looking for Ihnoc. Roland uses a fire potion to disperse the crag cats that had fallen asleep all over Ihnoc (pinning him) and they return to the shop. As Njáll is close to capture, the group take their airship and depart for the sub. Ihnoc recieves a disturbing communication from Ubungu. Episode 15: The Hindanorak As Eiji and Anna make the necessary modifications, the rest of the group takes the time to rest. When the modifications are complete, the party agrees to a test and Anna submerses the airship. Later on however, it turns out there is a bomb on board. Quickly surfacing, the bomb is ripped from the floor by Njáll and thrown into the sea. After a small sea monster attacks through the hole, a note from the bomb shows that the party were targetted by Mr. X for not paying. The party then decides to return to Xerxes once again to chase up Ubungu. However, as they approach, an airship chase ensues between the authorities, the party and Mr. X's associates. It ends with the party's airship colliding with a residential area. Ihnoc, impatient and attacked by angry citizens, runs to the lower levels to help Ubungu. Roland and Njáll follow, while Eiji disappears amid the carnage and Elena stays with the other party members on the airship in an attempt to make it air worthy again. Episode 16: Where Only the Stupid Dare to Venture The party regrouped at an Inn in the merchant's district when a flying monastery descended from the sky and landed on the remaining section of the bridge to Xerxes. By stark contrast to the entire population of Xerxes, the party was totally unfazed, and pretended to be an emergency response crew in order to steal an airship and get a closer look. Whilst making the short journey, Roland got Elena to give him a brief crash-course on how to pilot the airship, and then volunteered to guard the ship in case of any hostile action. As soon as the others were off the ship, Roland realised that the time he'd had with the party constituted some of the worst parts of his life so far. He immediately cut his losses and throttled the ship away, flipping off Ihnoc as he went. Ignoring the insults from Roland as he disappeared, Njáll, Elena and Ihnoc turned their attention to the monastery. A ramp lowered and out walked some hundred odd aliens, and their leader- distinguished by his bigger gun and grumpier features introduced them as the Eldaar. Ihnoc waved, Elena whispered to Njáll that she didn't like the the newcomers, and Njáll himself just laughed manically. Just when first contact was looking terrible, it got worse, with a bedraggled man pulling himself up the broken bridge and giving a wet handshake to the leader. He introduced himself as Dimo, and with a few poorly-placed words found himself thrown into the ocean by gravity guns. This happened three times before the Eldaar left, but not before they had doomed the bottom levels of Xerxes by unleashing small robotic mind control bugs. The party, now including Dimo, managed to get a lift back to the Xerxes Merchant's District, and settled down in the Lit Torch Inn. Suddenly, the ground started shaking violently (again) and the residents of Xerxes started to panic (again), unsecured valuable fell off shelves and stalls overturned. All of this culminated with Kiki's appearance with her protector Ryu. She accepted the party without question. It became apparent that Abbadon the Consumer had been been summoned to Xerxes. However, in the same ambiguous way, an eternal army came to be that cleansed the Eldaar's damage to Xerxes and locking Abbadon in a titanic battle. As the heroes could do nothing to influence the conflict, they fled. The conflict eventually moved away from Xerxes. Episode 17: The Meincraft Travelling east from Abbadon, the party came across a small mountain range that separated them from the coast. While traversing it, they noticed a large sink hole, uncharacteristc for the area. Concealed inside was a large skyship, akin to that of the Darennian design. Leaving the others to investigate, Ryu transported Elena to the port city of Chester, over the mountain range, returning to Kiki when he was finished. Investigating the ship became hazardous, as Ihnoc fell into the hold. Njáll decided to activate the ship, nicknamed Meincraft, and Dimo secured Kiki to his belt. As Ihnoc attempted to reach the deck again, he came across hatched eggs. The creatures that laid them also eventually appeared, as Ihnoc was locked against one in combat. The giant spiders ran through the ship, eventually reaching the deck and tying webs between the masts. Meanwhile, Elena began exploring the port of Chester for its market wears. She eventually notices the Meincraft, swaying in the sky from Njáll's lack of piloting experience. Her head in her hands she raced towards it. On board however, the altitude had given circling griffons a chance for a meal. The party too fast (and in Ihnoc's case, far too chewy), the griffons plucked the spiders from the deck and the party gained limited control of the skyship, landing it on the outskirts of Chester. Numerous repairs would be required but the party now had a functioning vehicle again, even if it had a few skeletons in the closet (Dimo's quaters quite literally). Ihnoc then received a message from Anna, the Anorak's pilot. She said she, Poly and Vera had found their way to the industrial area of Technotropolis, though they had no idea that was where they were. As aliens, they had attempted to stay hidden but knew they'd be found soon and requested aid. Ihnoc informed the party that the skyship's damage from disrepair made the trip one way. Episode 18: One Way Ticket to Hell Regardless of the damage and with Njáll at the helm, the party set a course west to The Black Sea, passing the conflict with Abbadon that had now moved south. The trip took several days but eventually the horizon gave way to a great island. Ihnoc had managed to trace Anna's location here but the island was vast and it would take months to find a settlement. Suddenly, two shapes appeared in the sky which Ihnoc recognised as some kind of jet aircraft. They announced that the party were now entering restricted airspace. Refusing to leave, the party were shot down by these two Power & Tech aircraft. Ihnoc found buoyancy with an orang-outang corpse he found in the hold and fell overboard. The corpse was taken by the lake below, what kind of creature was not known. Elena and Njáll ran to the deck and jumped as the Meincraft began to sink into the lake. Dimo, unconcerned as a god, did not react and stayed behind. After swimming to the shore, the party began to search for some kind of settlement, heading back to the coast to follow it. Eventually however, they were forced into the surrounding jungle. Bewildered, the paused, only to come under attack by armed PT commandos. The trio managed to defeat the 4 troopers and spare one for interrogation. They only managed to get a few words out of him before a small raptor lurched from the bushes to attack. Fortunately, an unnamed woman appeared in a jeep to save them. Thinking her untrustworthy, Elena reluctantly agreed, though Njáll and Ihnoc were perfectly willing to follow. The woman drove to a dirt road and began to navigate out of the jungle, when a bomb anaesthetized the party. Ihnoc managed to filter some of the gas but the trio were loaded onto a helicopter and transported away, the unnamed woman loaded onto another. When they awoke, the trio found themselves in a junkyard. Believing it to be the place they were searching for, Elena scouted the giant refuse piles and Ihnoc began to explore north. As they ventured however, Doctor Machina sprang his trap. Finding Anna, Poly and Vera, Ihnoc instructed them to hide as Machina revealed the truth. He had been following Elena for months about the rumours of the Elixer of Life. Determined to gain the secret, Machina retreated and set one of his bio-weapons upon them; a reanimated allosaurus outfitted with a back mounted laser cannon. Ihnoc immediately went at the monstrosity with grenades he took from the dead PT commandos. However, Njáll realised the corpse was controlled by power nodes across it's body and proceeded to attack them. Elena attempted all kinds of magic, but she only managed to summon a giant squid that grappled around the dead allosaurus and then vanished. Ihnoc eventually noticed Machina's circling helicopter with him on board and hurled grenades into it. Many were thrown back out but a couple caused internal damage. Njáll disabled the animates legs but not before it let off a powerful shot from its cannon, knocking Ihnoc unconscious. Elena took his place hurling grenades and managed to take down the helicopter. Along with a few poor shots from commandos in the helicopter in an attempt to hit Njáll, the allosaurus was also weakened. Suddenly however, Ihnoc awoke to see a car from a heap about to fall on himself and Elena. They rushed out of the way, narrowly avoiding a thinner waist. As Machina's helicopter careered away, the party recouped their losses, detaching the intact cannon from the bio-weapon and storing it in an abandoned warehouse, their base of operations for the time being. Episode 19: Into the Under City The episode begins with Dimo plummeting from the sky after the meincraft was blown up with him still stuck on the loo. He fell and landed in the scrapyard where the party had previously fought the evil Doctor Machina's bio-weapon. Dimo landed where Machina's cargo helicopter had crashed after the bio-weapon battle. Just as he landed a series of air crash investigators showed up to examine the remains of the cargo copter wreckage. Despite them being escorted by police vehicles Dimo chose to introduce himself. Whilst Dimo was being questioned by the baffled air crash investigators and police, Elena was bored of waiting in the warehouse and wondered off to find a way out of the dock and scrapyard and into the nearby city. She didn't bother telling anyone and nobody saw her leave. Eventually she happened upon a tall gate being guarded by a series of armed police. She chose to hide herself from their view whilst she figured out a way to get past them. Meanwhile Njall was trying desperately to get his prized laser cannon that he salvaged from the bio-weapon to work. After miserably attempting to get the gun to fire through logical means he got bored and lost his temper with it. In an equally pitiful attempt to kick it, he completely missed it and fell backwards into a load of precariously stacked shipping containers. These fell over and through a series of stranges events one of them was hurled skyward into a passing helicopter. The helicopter crashed and fell onto the remains of Machina's, still fuel laden, cargo helicopter which promptly exploded. The explosion made a huge fissure appear in the ground and the entire party and a few policemen were consumed by it. The police units died in the fall but the party got up to find themselves in a large and ornately decorated sub-terranean cavern/sewage system with a group of zombies advancing on them. The party went into battled and eventually killed all of the zombies but not before Dimo died again and woke up undead and Elena used magic to set a zombie on fire which fell into the flammable sewage river to the right of the cavern. This pungent concoction promptly exploded and blew a section of wall away, allowing the sewage river to flow away and creating a path out of the cavern. The party left the cavern through the hole they created and encountered a group of gangsters whom they asked for a route back to the city. Seemingly quite impressed/spooked by the explosion the party had just made, the gang leader agreed to show them the way out. Unfortunately it wasn't long before they were trapped in a circular chamber with a deep pool of water in its center from which Doctor Machina emerged driving some sort of submersible robot. A battle ensued between Machina and the party. Njall jumped onto the sub and attempted to hack it to pieces with his sword, disabling one of the mechanical construct's arm's in the process. Ihnoc hijacked one of the many drones being released by the sub. Elena fired crossbow bolts at the sub and its drones but eventually Dimo defeated it by tangling its limbs with his indestructably fishing rod and throwing it into the robot's bouyancy fans, causing the machine to collapse on itself and explode. The explosion blasted yet another hole into the walls of the chamber through which the party and the sub remains were swept. In the process Machina managed to snatch Elena and make his escape whilst the rest of the party were discarded from the sewers into a skip in an alleyway behind downtown Red Zone Technotropolis... Episode 20: Technical Terror Having just been dumped into a skip by an exploding sewer, the party is immediately ambushed by an imperial city time traveller called Isabelle. Dimo stumbled from the party and attempted to introduce himself. Unfortunately he did an exceptionally poor job and Isabelle immediately decided that he was quite rude. Once the rest of the party managed to climb out of the skip they chose to leave the alley way with Isabelle, despite having just been offended by Dimo, tagging along. The party left the alleyway only to be greeted by a giant mechanical city of skyscrapers, atleast 6 lanes of motorised traffic and more people than their eyes could possibly focus on. In an act of complete and utter senselessness Dimo decided to walk out into the oncoming jet driven cars. Obviously a huge pile up of motorized vehicles followed soon after. With the roads thoroughly﻿ blocked by piles of cars the rest of the party managed to get across the street without any issues. Now on the other side of the road the party immediately spotted a huge colourful building that stood out from the rest of the grey/metallic high risers. The went towards it. As they reached the entrance the doorways were blasted out with a lot of smoke and shattered glass going everywhere. A young Akuparian women emerged from the smoke and, seeing that the party had just broken the law with the traffic fiasco, convinced the party to climb into one of the crashed cars. As they drove of they saw a few security guards and the bumbling detective Max Jetson emerge from the smoke. Frustrated that his prisoner had escaped at the hands of his incompetent gaurds, Jetson hit them round the head several times before calling his helicopter to pursue the party. While Jetson was catching up with them the party asked Yuna about her past. Turns out Yuna is one of the promotional faces of the Baga'Kai company which was started by a group of Akuparian immigrants in Technotropolis who started their own company. Sick of working for them and singing the Baga'Kai movie theme tunes for them she chose to try and make a run for it. To prevent their star from escaping the company hired Jetson to keep her prisoner at the company's head office. Eventually Jetson had caught up with them and had called for several police cars to aid him in his pursuit. Njall had Yuna use her psionic abilities to send him flying towards Jetson and his helicopter. Once onboard Njall proceeded to lob crew members out one by one. In the mean time the party was forced of an aerial roadway only to land on the upper deck of a car transporter. The party released some of the cars on the transporter which fell onto pursuing police cars. Yuna and Isabelle got themselves a new car and drove of the back of the transporter while Ihnoc and Dimo released the trailer from the truck cab allowing them to make their escape. The two vehicles containing the party went through a tunnel only to be met by a fuel tanker which had to abruptly stop to avoid hitting them. Thinking that the fuel container could come loose from its transport, Ihnoc attempts to shoot the tanker (the idea being that it would explode). Unfornately he hit one of the chains securing it to the vehicle instead, allowing it to come loose and follow the two party vehicles down hill. Meanwhile Jetson recklessly orders his pilot to fly just above the road surface so that he can pursue the party himself. At this point Yuna sends a psionic fireball towards the loose fuel tank which explodes under Jetson's helicopter. The blast knocks Njall overboard but he manages to successly land onto Yuna and Isabelle's car. Oh yeah, whilst all of this happened Dimo got sucked through a car's jet engine at some point which killed him outright for a few turns... With the party reunited and Jetson gone for now, they managed to crash and write off all of the vehicles at a truck loading bay at the back of Baga'Kai World themepark. With guards advancing in all directions the party chooses to climb the colourful castle structure in front of them. Amidst the panic Dimo decides to hide in his bag which the guard leader picks up and carries whilst him and his guards continue to follow the party up the service ladders. In a slightly more sensible move Dimo uses his insanely strong glue on the hand rails which causes all the other guards to get stuck, allowing only the leader to continue. Eventually the party gets to the top of the colourful castle to find an enormous mechanical crater in the middle of it. Jetson suddenly reappears in his helicopter and snatches Yuna from the party. In the process he hooks Dimo's bag onto the copter's landing skid and knocks the guard leader into the mechanical crater by accident. With silence being broken only by the humming of a ghostly white blimp flying overhead in the nightsky, spotlights from the ground and from Jetson's helicopter light up the colourful castle and the tower buzzes into life.... Episode 21: Puppetry A whirl of motors engulfed the castle as a giant mechanism rolled forward. A skeleton with fabric draping from it's shoulders appeared. Then, the fabric inflated, forming a the immense shape of a Baga'Kai creature. Then it's eyes flashed open, the crew inside ready to crush the party with it's enormous fists. Ihnoc immediately ran for cover while Njáll lept forward hoping to dig his sword into the machination’s skin. It bounced off but he landed fairly safely on the creature's giant knee. Meanwhile, Yuna began to control the helicopter's co-pilot with her psionic powers, orientating the aircraft towards the Baga'Kai. Dimo kicked the guard leader away and lept with his bag onto the helicopter as well. The most deft of them all, Isabelle attempted to time travel and, upon her second attempt, travelled to 6 months prior. She immediately fell several metres since the castle had not been fully constructed. However, listening carefully to workers, she discovered weaknesses in the opponents design. First, it was a puppet, controlled by metal strings behind it's body and the crew in it's head. Second, that there was a weak valve on the front of puppet and finally that it was inflated by fans at the castle tower behind it. With this information, she jumped back to the present and relayed this information by thinking it to Yuna. Yuna provided this information to the party and they all began running for the tower. Isabelle began flicking fan switches and the pupped deflated momentarily. However, the crew released this and unleashed the puppet's fists on Isabelle, knocking her out cold. Ihnoc began running towards the tower but fell backwards when trying to climb a small obstacle. Dimo also ran around the castle wall, avoiding machine gun fire from the helicopter gunner. Both however noticed small shiny packets, that turned out to be booster backs to Baga'Kai cards. Njáll began climbing the creature, narrowly avoiding the laser cannon making shots at Ihnoc. Ihnoc decided he'd be more help getting out so began broadcasting an obscure Azuman pop song to radio towers and hoped someone was listening. Yuna lept from the helicopter as Jetson beat the pilots over the head for their incompetence, joining Dimo and Njáll at the tower. They climbed to the head and clobbered the pilots inside, sending the puppet lurching forward and the crew through it's eyes. With guards inbound, Yuna healed Isabelle and a shiny small craft flew into the mechanical crater. Ihnoc gestured them inside and the craft took off, pursued but eventually evaded by Technotropolis' advanced jets. The party now decided what to do next. With no leads to go on with Elena, the vote suggested going to the Human Imperium since Yuna needed to escape and Isabelle had unfinished business. Ihnoc agreed but said the craft could only take them as far as Tormouth, a fishing town across the border from the Imperium. When Dimo pressed as to why, the response was that it would be contaminating. Arriving in Tormouth, wanted posters began appearing for Ihnoc. Isabelle went to a tavern to book passage to Imperial City; 4 silver and weapons claimed once on board. Ihnoc went to a seedier bar, ordered a drink using his foreign Baga'Kai cards and watched as the patrons eyed him closely. Yuna paid for a hair colouring, changing from natural purple to blonde and Njáll researched what he could about artefacts. Dimo decided to simply walk off. Then, Ihnoc noticed three men who looked familiar. They set fire to the inn and ran out at the moment he released they were the same group attacking them way back in Porto de Costa. He leapt over the bar, founded the cards he had paid for and helped the barkeeper with his things to escape. From the ensuring chaos, the party, minus Dimo, met up and Isabelle led them to the port. Ihnoc refused to surrender his weapon (unlike the rest of the party) and fired constantly for several minutes, before giving in. The boat set sail down the coast and up the eastern rivers of the Imperium... Category:Folk Tales Category:Content